December 08, 2008

Numismaticism Update 2008

I got my first Alaska quarter last week and it had a big old grizzly bear on it, which was kind of neat but it seemed to put an end to my hopes of seeing a US state quarter with THREE buffaloes. Kansas came out with their one-buffalo quarter in 2005
, and then North Dakota upped the ante with their two-buffalo quarter in 2006.
There were still some buffalo-possible states that could have come through with three buffalo—either Montana or Wyoming seemed kind of likely—but they didn’t. (If you are a true numismaticist fanaticist, you can check my blog post from April, 2007 to see what happened with Montana.) Anyway, once Alaska came in with the grizzly, the only one left was buffalo-unlikely Hawaii—OR SO I THOUGHT. But no!

It turns out that 2009 is gonna be the year of the Commemorative Quarters of the District of Columbia and United States Territories! I vote for the three-buffalo quarter from Guam! The Northern Mariana Islands! (Where?) It’s up to you, American Samoa! C’mon, Puerto Rico! Show us your buffalo!

I went back to your April 2007 post. Yeah, the Montana quarter with the cow skull on it is pretty cool. The Wisconsin quarter really needs the faux motto that some in the midwest attribute to Wisconsin: Eat Cheese or Die!

Joe R: You'll get four pennies in circulation -- just go to the link Listener James posted and at the left under "Coins and Medals" is a list of various upcoming mint releases -- about halfway down is "2009 Lincoln One Cent Coins" -- you click that to get some text and a bulleted list, and clicking on each item in the list will show you the designs.
There's also a commemorative dollar that probably won't be circulated, but sold to collectors -- click on the "Commemoratives" link next to the bottom of the "Coins and Medals" list. Under 2009 is the Lincoln dollar and a Louis Braille coin as well. Below that are lists of all the coins you've already missed.

Listener James: That list doesn't include Ronald Reagan! That's a surprise. Maybe the bill authorizing the coins passed before Reagan died. I'm sure they'll add him to the list. It seems like the mint is really cranking out the commemoratives and redesigns.

Not only are we getting presidential coins, we are now getting Native American dollars with special reverse designs (one per year) -- look for "Native American $1 Coins" above the "2009 Lincoln One Cent Coins". I think they start this year, so we haven't seen any yet. Sacagawea stays on the front, and the series continues as long as the mint keeps at it.

and First Spouse gold coins: See the item in the list between the Presidential and Native American $1 coins. Apparently Andrew Jackson and Martin van Buren were married to some dame named "Liberty" that has already appeared on our coinage. :-)

Not to mention the other bullion coins, such as the Eagle.

Gene: The Montana and Wyoming emblems are their standard emblems. the cow (bull) skull was on their bicentennial license plate, and the Wyoming cowboy was on all their license plates in the 1970s and beyond. I think they should have put some details on the cowboy.

Anyway, sorry for all the oddball click here and here and here directions, but apparently the antispam gnomes won't allow me to post links using the "A" tags nor paste them in directly (i guess they figure i'm spamming on behalf of the US mint (though given the state of our nation's finances these days, i guess that's not such an unreasonable possibility)). :-)

I was at my sister's the other day and she showed me a DC quarter with Duke Ellington on it. I had no idea that the Mint was going beyond the fifty states. What the? Curious, I checked the internest and http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/DCAndTerritories/ shows six more quarters and in 2010, they're starting a series of National Parks quarters. I guess I'll need to look for storage books for them all.